TO MIME

TO MIME ENG: if you mime something, you express an idea in actions and gestures without speech. RUS: изображать жестами, изображать мимически As a student, I worked in a hotel as a maid—an incredibly humbling experience, indeed. So much so that I will have the utmost respect for hotel maids for the rest of my life and always make sure to leave tips. It was a physically demanding job, and by the end of the day, I would be on my last legs, but I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard as I did that summer. Probably because of sheer exhaustion, or maybe because I was footloose and fancy-free—who knows? Anyway, it was almost time to knock off work when I was told to go to a room where a guest had requested extra housekeeping service. So I soldiered on, shuffling my feet across the corridor as I went upstairs. As I approached the door, I heard squeaks, yelps, kids crying, piercing shrieks, and on top of that—a dog barking. I gulped and braced myself for what was about to come. I knocked on the door, and a minute later, a man in a bathrobe opened it. He was beaming, which was quite odd given the complete mayhem in the room—two kids fighting and crying, their mom trying to break up the fight, and the dog barking nonstop. The room itself was absolutely trashed. I don’t know whether the man thought I wouldn’t understand or hear him, but he didn’t say a word; instead, he resorted to miming. He pointed to his bare feet and then to the vacuum cleaner. The man was miming that he had accidentally vacuumed up his socks and wanted them back. Relieved that he wasn’t asking me to clean the room, I unscrewed the vacuum hose and retrieved the two dirty socks. Thinking he preferred gestures over words, I mimed back to him, “Do you still want them, sir?” He nodded enthusiastically, so I handed them over. As I was leaving the room, I heard him yell to his wife, “I got them out, hon!” Hi, Danielle and Mille, and everybody. On the latest bonus ep you asked for stories about celeb meetings. This one isn’t super spicy, so feel free to read on the air. Here’s what happened when I met the world-famous cellist, Yo-Yo Ma. I was working for a production company that was interviewing Mr. Ma. I know that’s the name. I know that’s how you say it. It sounds wild. Mr. Ma. Why is it…when I’m looking at it written am I laughing? I don’t know why…Ok, ok, I gotta get it together to finish the email. We can do this. Just before he got to set some bucket drummers started playing right outside. Bucket drummers are pretty much always playing in downtown Chicago. I set out to ask them to leave, when I got back, Yo-Yo Ma was just chilling with the rest of the video team. He said, “Oh, hey, were you the one who took care of the bucket drummers?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Did you, you know…” And then he mimed a cutting motion across his throat. “…take care of them?” I said, “No. I just bribed them 20 dollars to play further down the street”. Yo-Yo Ma stared at me for a very long time, then whispered, “God, I love Chicago.”